Relentless
by Atomic Kokoro
Summary: Ikki has been murdered, and Kazu is taking the heat. Trusting no one, he must clear his name and find the true murderer, before he is hunted down and he forced to face a fate worse than death. (Rating may change to M later, depending on how the story goes.)


**Relentless**

**By: AtomicKokoro**

**Storyline**

Ikki has been murdered, and Kazu is taking the heat. Trusting no one, he must clear his name and find the true murderer, before he is hunted down and he forced to face a fate worse than death.

…

**Before You Read**

This little fan fiction hit me outta the blue. I don't even know why. So, yes. This is my latest obsession. Kazuma Mikura and Air Gear. I'm sorry. I just love him, about as much as Reno and Kida. Yes. That's possible.

So, I hope you guys like it. It's a little different from some of my other fanfics. Um, this one I'm trying to write similar to _The Distance a Raindrop Falls_, but maybe...not. And me, sticking away from the romance genre because I'm...awesome that way.

**May change rating later on.**

On with the story!

…

**Chapter 1**

**Silence of the Autumn**

The only warmed came from the trapped body heat from under his blanket. The panes on the window were so cold, but so much warmer than the outside. Winter was fast approaching. Fall restlessly tugged between warm, rainy nights and chilly, sunny days, like summer and winter were shoved in a blender and the switch was set to high.

There was an unsettling silence as any noises from the downstairs went silent, but he only knew what it meant. He counted down – backwards – the amount of steps he would hear until an annoyed voice snapped through the crack in the door, "Wake up, you lazy ass! You'll be late for school."

Kazu groaned. He did not want to get out from under the covers of his warm bed. His body was sore from Trekking harder than he should have the previous night, and he had stayed up so late. "Can I just stay home?" he whined.

When there wasn't much of a reply, the blond began to wonder if she left, when the blanket was pulled from him and he was met with freezing air. "Hey, what the hell, Onee-chan!?" he snapped, reaching wildly for the blanket, but his sister just hoisted it over her shoulder and marched out of the room. "Give it back!"

He jumped out of bed, but decided it was useless as he heard a echo from the hall outside his room, "Get dressed, then come eat breakfast!"

Kazu sighed, then glanced himself over. It was always so awkward that his older sister would just waltz in and take his blanket when he was hardly dressed for the morning. "Dammit, Onee-chan," he mumbled to himself, grabbing a clean shirt and some jeans he found on his bedroom floor. "Takes my damn blanket," he growled, trying to slip on his jeans without trouble. "like it belongs to h- Shit!"

And he lost his balance and fell into his laundry hamper.

…

The eggs were lukewarm by the time the male it down to the kitchen. "Sweet," he commented as he slid into his seat and started on his eggs. "Thanks, Onee-chan."

She chuckled and set a cup of milk on the table. "Careful, Kazu. No eating with your mouthful. God, you are such a pig. You're worse than some of your friends. Kazu! Hold on! You're going to choke!"

…

Kazu grabbed his backpack, then paused. "Onee-chan," he called through the house as she walked out of the bathroom with a face full of make-up and her bra. The younger could easily see her from the front door where he was waiting, just glancing up the steps to the second floor where the bathroom door was. "W-Will you put on a shirt?"

She blinked and glanced at herself. "Kazu! Oh, my God! Don't look! Geez..."

Kazu rolled his eyes and adjusted his backpack. He was quiet for a moment, glancing at the time on a clock in the kitchen, when he shifted a bit and glanced outside. "Ah, Onee-chan, when is daylight savings time?"

"It was last night," she said from the hallway, then returning with a rather nice purple blouse. Now that Kazu thought about it, didn't he buy her that blouse last Christmas? _Or was that Mom?_ "Why?"

The blond brother shrugged and pointed to the clock on the stove. Bright, bold, green numbers changed the time from eight thirty eight to eight thirty nine. "I was gonna ask if you changed all the clocks yet."

"No, I haven't."

Kazu blinked for a moment, and stared at the clock on the stove. "So, then, it isn't eight forty?"

The sister paused, then glanced at the clocks. "Son of a bitch," she sighed. "It's seven forty, isn't it?"

"Seven forty-one, to be exact." The sister sighed and walked back into the bathroom. Kazu chuckled at the misfortune and threw his backpack back on the ground. "Can't go back to sleep now," she muttered, referring to herself. "I already put all my make-up on."

Kazu sighed and shrugged. "I'll go see what's on TV."

His sister glanced out the bathroom door, her hands on one ear, trying to put in her gold, dangling earring. "You do that," she said, quickly fixing in her other one and walking down the steps.

By the time she reached the living room, Kazu was already flipping through the channels, a still sleepy Jiwa in his lap. He pet the chihuahua with one hand while he clicked the remote with the others. "In the mood for anything in particular?"

His sister sighed and sat beside him, watching TV mindlessly with her little brother.

…

Even though they had woken up early, both siblings had a habit that had been passed down through the genetics of their father; getting too far into the TV set and losing track of time. Suddenly, Jiwa began to bark at someone who was walking by their front door and the two broke out of their TV-zoned trance.

They glanced at each other, then at a clock in the front hall. "Sh-Shit!" they gasped as they each grabbed one of the two backpacks at the front and hurrying out the door without even a chance to say goodbye to each other.

…

Kazu just slid down into his seat as the bell rang for class to begin. He sighed, with relief and brushed his hair from his face. He was sweating too much to wear his hat, so he just pulled it off and let himself cool off naturally. "Close one," Onigiri chuckled from behind him.

The blond glanced back at him and gave a tired smile before turning back to the front. Tom-Tom began to speak (er, stutter) about some book report due that day and how she was going to collect it.

"Dude, nice back pack."

Kazu turned to Onigiri again, then down at his back pack. It was a baby pink with small flowers decorated along it. It was about the same size and weight as Kazu's black and blue one, and he face palmed, picking up the backpack with his free hand. "Shit! I grabbed my sister's backpack instead of mine!"

"Oh, it's a nice back pack," came a voice with a somewhat shaky undertone. When Kazu looked up, Tom-Tom retaliated, like he had just tossed her a death glare (but he was really only annoyed that he had the wrong backpack and, therefore, his book report wasn't there). "O-Oh..."

The blond blinked then glanced at Ikki across the room, who was snickering and giving him a sarcastic thumbs up. Kazu kept himself from sighing too harshly (or he would scare Tom-Tom out of the room) and gave a half-meek smile. "Sorry. I don't have my report. Is it okay if I hand it in tomorrow?"

Of course, he might as well have flowers and rainbows in the background. The amount of sweetness he forced into that one sentence was probably a little sickening to anyone. Well, anyone but Tom-Tom, who was probably more relieved than charmed. "Yes," she said with a sigh, standing straight again. "I suppose so."

The blond smiled as she moved to Onigiri, who explained he didn't have his book report (and, later, Ikki would make an excuse as well) and class droned on.

It was unfortunate he didn't have his back pack. He was stuck using his sister's girly supplies. She was no waster when it came to supplies. They had to look pretty, write (or be written on) pretty, and they – above all – had to be expensive. Kazu was more into the cheapest they had at the dollar store. As long as it was cheap and came with lead, that was all he cared about.

When lunch time rolled around, he had thrown all the supplies back in the bag (They were so neatly set up when he pulled them all out. He felt bad that he didn't put them back in the way they came out, but he didn't really feel like it at the time. Maybe he would do it later.) and adjusted it on his shoulder.

"Do you want to switch back packs?" He was currently walking with Emily to the lunch hall. There was no one in the hall aside from them. Kazu blinked and glanced at her. She pushed some black strands behind her ear and glanced at him. "At least the back pack will be black. I can carry the pink one."

It took a few moments before he realized what she was talking about. "Oh, yeah, sure," he said, handing her his sister's bag and taking Emily's. It was a little smaller than Onee-chan's, a nice jet black and made of weaker material than boy's backpacks, but he didn't complain. It was just for appearance sake. "Hey, I'll be back in a sec." He held the backpack over his shoulder, turning and glancing at her. This wasn't weird timing – was it? - to say, "I'm just going to the bathroom."

She lifted an eyebrow, as though he wasn't going to the bathroom because he needed to use it but rather _wanted_ to (which Kazu didn't pick up until he was half way there and he almost slapped himself) and he disappeared.

Emily sighed and continued to the cafeteria. She bought herself a lunch and met up with Yayoi, who pointed to her back pack. "Did you get a new one?" she asked, not being present for hearing about Kazu's back pack switch-up.

"No," the first girl chuckled. "It's Kazu's sister's. Long story."

The two girls wandered through the school for a bit, talking and trying to find a good place to eat their lunch, when they spotted Akito and Buccha by the track. "Hey!" Emily chirped as she walked to the two somewhat lonely boys. "What's up?"

Buccha glanced up, his magenta eyes in a more softer state due to the peace. "Hey, Emily," he and Akito said simultaneously. It wasn't unlike Akito to be the one running about when school was in session. Agito hated the idea of school and Akito much enjoyed it, so it was a win-win situation. "How's it going?"

"Good," Yayoi chuckled as she sat beside Akito and Emily took a seat beside her. "You?"

"We're good!" Akito chirped, kicking his legs childishly as he bit into his rice ball.

There was a bit of a silence, when Emily realized a few people were missing in action. "What happened to Ikki and Onigiri?"

"Ikki went to the bathroom," Buccha replied (Emily chuckling at the irony of that). "and Onigiri... Well, God knows where he disappeared to."

Emily blinked and opened her bento box. It was a nicely put-together box. The sushi was place almost perfectly, the salmon a nice pink color and the rice a snow white. The school usually spared expensive with it's cooks, but this bento always seemed to say otherwise. "Hm..." And she took a bite of sushi.

…

The blond yawned as he tried to find someplace that made sense to leave a girl's backpack in a boy's bathroom before making his way to one of the urinals and undoing his zipper. "What a day," he muttered to himself.

He was trying to decide if it was a good day or a bad day. It was bad, because he didn't have his book report. It was good, because he didn't have to hand his report until the next day. It was bad, because he had to carry a girl's back pack, but good because he had Emily's black one. He supposed it was actually evened out to an okay day.

After another yawn, he pulled his zipper back up and walked to the sinks to wash his hands. There was some footsteps and a quizzical, "What? Who's back pack is this?"

Kazu recognized the voice and glanced over his shoulder. "Oh, hey, Ikki," he said. "It's Emily's. She lent it to me to wear for the day instead of Onee-chan's."

Ikki laughed and kicked the backpack before making his way to the urinals himself. "Still stuck with the girl's backpack," he teased. Kazu frowned and picked up the lop-sided backpack. He could yell at Ikki, but he figured it would be pointless.

"You suck," Kazu groaned, dusting off the bag and putting it over his shoulder.

Ikki did back up his own zipper and started washing his hands. "Yeah, but I'm awesome, too."

The blond rolled his eyes and started out the bathroom with Ikki following him. "Hey, are we getting together today? Or is it just one for one?"

Ikki laughed. "Uh, yeah!" he exclaimed, louder than he probably should have. "We have some ass to kick tonight!"

Ass to kick? Kazu didn't hear about this. Then again, he had been forced to shop with his sister the previous day. He wouldn't be surprised if Kogarasumaru got into _another fight_ while he was gone. It made sense.

As they walked, they passed a fellow student (who's name Kazu could not remember to save his life) who waved and continued by. Kazu yawned again (man, was he tired) and glanced at Ikki again. "Dude, where's your backpack?"

Ikki glanced at his back, then frowned a bit. "I probably left it in the English room," he remarked, sounding slightly annoyed. Obviously, the next place they would be going before lunch was to the English room.

When they finally reached the room, Kazu leaned against the door while Ikki wandered in and took a look for his backpack. "Dude, I'll be right back. I'm just going to grab a water, kay?"

Ikki turned, looking a little pissed Kazu wasn't going to help him look for his backpack, but the blond turned and left the room, on his way to the nearest vending machine. He quickly popped in a few yen and typed into the machine. He glanced around, wondering where all the students had gone.

He sighed, when there was a pop from the machine, telling him his water had been delivered. He reached down and pulled out the water from the machine. He cracked open the top and started downing the water, walking back to the English room, where he had left Ikki.

…

**After Notes**

I decided to stop here because everything I wrote afterward was crap. I'll just skip to the better parts.

Love it? Hate it? Wanna read it again? Let me know! The review button is right there!


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